The Associated Press - By By KRISTEN DE GROOT and CLAUDIA LAUER - Associated Press

April 27, 2018 9:01pm

The home of entertainer Bill Cosby is seen on Friday, April 27, 2018, in Elkins Park, Pa. Cosby was convicted Thursday of drugging and molesting Temple University employee Andrea Constand at his suburban Philadelphia mansion. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Bill Cosby accusers Lili Bernard, left, and Victoria Valentino, right, reach out to embrace outside the courtroom after Cosby was found guilty in his sexual assault retrial, Thursday, April, 26, 2018, at the Montgomery County Courthouse in Norristown, Pa. A jury convicted the "Cosby Show" star of three counts of aggravated indecent assault on Thursday. The guilty verdict came less than a year after another jury deadlocked on the charges. (Mark Makela/Pool Photo via AP)

Bill Cosby accuser Andrea Constand smiles as she listens during a news conference after Cosby was found guilty in his sexual assault retrial, Thursday, April 26, 2018, in Norristown, Pa. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

Accuser Lili Bernard, foreground, is consoled by grief counselor Caroline Heldman left, as accuser Victoria Valentino, right, is comforted outside the courtroom after Bill Cosby was found guilty in his sexual assault retrial, Thursday, April, 26, 2018, at the Montgomery County Courthouse in Norristown, Pa. After decades of whispers, lawsuits, investigations and close calls - and a multitude of women who lost hope anyone would ever believe their word against that of America's Dad - Cosby could be headed to prison at age 80 for the remainder of his life. (Mark Makela/Pool Photo via AP, Pool)

Bill Cosby gestures as he leaves the Montgomery County Courthouse in Norristown, Pa., after being convicted of drugging and molesting a woman, Thursday, April 26, 2018. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

Actor and comedian Bill Cosby reacts while being notified a verdict was in in his sexual assault retrial, Thursday, April, 26, 2018, at the Montgomery County Courthouse in Norristown, Pa. A jury convicted the "Cosby Show" star of three counts of aggravated indecent assault on Thursday. The guilty verdict came less than a year after another jury deadlocked on the charges. (Mark Makela/Pool Photo via AP)

Actor and comedian Bill Cosby departs the courthouse after he was found guilty in his sexual assault retrial, Thursday, April, 26, 2018, at the Montgomery County Courthouse in Norristown, Pa. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

NORRISTOWN, Pa. (AP) — Bill Cosby's team blasted his sexual-assault trial as a "public lynching" Friday and began looking ahead to an appeal as the judge ordered house arrest for the 80-year-old comedian and said he would be outfitted with a GPS ankle monitoring device.

Cosby's appeal seems certain to focus on the judge's decision to let a parade of women testify that they, too, were abused by the former TV star.

Defense allegations of a biased juror and the admission of Cosby's explosive testimony about drugs and sex are among other possible avenues of appeal as he tries to avoid a sentence that could keep him in prison for the rest of his days.

Cosby remains free on $1 million bail while he awaits sentencing, probably within three months.

Judge Steven O'Neill said Cosby would be confined to his suburban Philadelphia home in the meantime. The judge's order, issued Friday afternoon, said the comic may leave his house to meet with his lawyers or to get medical treatment, but must get permission first.

Cosby kept out of sight and was spending time with his wife of 54 years, Camille, in the wake of his conviction Thursday on charges he drugged and molested Temple University women's basketball administrator Andrea Constand at his home outside Philadelphia in 2004.

Constand, meanwhile, took to Twitter to thank prosecutors in her first comment on the verdict.

"Truth prevails," she wrote.

Cosby's publicists likened the "Cosby Show" star to Emmett Till, the black teenager who was kidnapped and murdered after witnesses said he whistled at a white woman in a Mississippi grocery store in 1955. Constand is white.

"He maintains his innocence, and he is going to walk around as a man who's innocent because he didn't do anything wrong," Cosby spokesman Andrew Wyatt said on ABC's "Good Morning America."

The conviction triggered more fallout for Cosby, whose career and reputation were already wrecked by a barrage of accusations from more than 60 women who said he drugged and molested them over a span of 50 years.

Temple University, the Philadelphia school that counted Cosby as its most famous alum, revoked his honorary degree.

Cosby maintained close ties with Temple, serving as its public face and often turning out to support its basketball teams — an interest that connected him with Constand.

The defense is likely to focus its appeal on the judge's decision to allow five additional accusers to testify. That ruling was a victory for prosecutors eager to move the case beyond a he-said, she-said.

One of those women called Cosby a "serial rapist." Another choked back tears as she asked, "You remember, don't you, Mr. Cosby?" A third declared: "I was raped."

The women's testimony introduced a "huge amount of prejudice and bias," Cosby spokeswoman Ebonee Benson said on ABC.

Lawyers not connected with the case said the defense has a strong argument.

"I think that his lawyers have a very real chance at overturning the verdict," said Christopher Adams, a defense attorney whose clients have included former NBA star Jayson Williams.

He said the judge's decision to allow the "prior bad acts" testimony could have tainted the jury.

"It's one thing if they looked at one or two, but five? He wasn't charged with being a serial assaulter," Adams said.

Former federal prosecutor David Axelrod, now in private practice in Philadelphia, also said Cosby's team has a shot at convincing an appeals court that the judge went too far.

Generally, testimony about a defendant's past misconduct is admissible only under certain circumstances — for example, if it shows motive or intent.

Only one other accuser was permitted to testify at Cosby's first trial, which ended in a hung jury last year.

The Cosby camp also complained about a juror who allegedly said before the trial that he thought the comedian was guilty. Cosby's lawyers tried unsuccessfully to have the man removed.

The defense is also expected to raise on appeal O'Neill's ruling that allowed jurors to hear portions of a deposition Cosby gave over a decade ago as part of Constand's lawsuit against him. In the deposition, the TV star acknowledged obtaining quaaludes in the 1970s to give to women he wanted to have sex with.

How the jury arrived at its verdict remained a mystery. The judge did not immediately make public the names of the seven men and five women, prompting The Associated Press and other news organizations to go to court Friday in a bid to get them released.

The three counts of aggravated indecent assault carry up to 10 years in prison each, but the charges are likely to be merged into one for sentencing purposes.

The AP does not typically identify people who say they are victims of sexual assault unless they grant permission, as Constand has done.